lingua franca

• Lingua Franca means a working language which enables communication between peoples of different languages and unifies them.
• Latin and Greek are good examples of a lingua franca under the Roman Republic and Roman Empire.

‘lingua franca’: the language of the Franks

• ‘lingua franca’ was an actual language used in the Mediterranean during the Medieval Period.
• The Name meant ‘the language of the Franks’.
• It was the Maritime language of the Mediterranean ports. It consisted mostly of Italian, with words added from many other languages.
• In a similar way after 1492 CE, Spanish and Portuguese became the lingua franca of Latin America.
• Before WW I (1914-1918) French was the lingua franca of International Diplomacy.
• Ecclesiastical Latin is still the lingua franca of the Roman Catholic Church.
• Today, the lingua franca of the world is English.